Villopoto Cruises To MX2 Qualification Win

By Kit Palmer | 9/22/2007 12:00 AM

Ryan Villopoto left no doubt who’s going to be the rider to beat in the MX2 class in tomorrow’s Red Bull MX of Nations. The Team USA/Kawasaki rider flat out crushed the competition in the MX2-class qualification race which just concluded, scoring a seemingly easy wire-to-wire victory. Villopoto grabbed the holeshot and opened up a big lead right away. By the halfway point of the 20-minute plus-two-lap race, Villopoto held a 40-second lead over MX2 World Champion Antonio Cairoli.

Cairoli came from behind after getting off to a sixth-place start, picking off riders such as France’s Nicolas Aubin, Great Britain’s Tommy Searle, Portugal’s Rui Goncalves and South Africa’s Gareth Swanepoel along the way. But by the time the Italian got into second, Villopoto was already long gone.

Unfortunately, the long-anticipated battle among Villopoto, Cairoli and Ben Townley will not happen this year.

Townley did not ride the MX2 qualifier. Earlier in the day, Townley injured his shoulder in practice, and then his teammate Daryl Hurley crashed and suffered a concussion in his Open-class practice session, putting him out for the weekend. With that in mind, Townley chose not to compete, thus officially putting Team New Zealand out of this year’s Motocross of Nations.

Kit Palmer started his career at Cycle News in 1984 and he’s been testing dirt and streetbikes every since – plus covering any event that uses some form of a knobby tire. He’s also our resident motorcycle mileage man with a commute of 120 miles a day.